Skip to main content

Tobey Steeves

Followers

94

Following

67

Public Views

I teach social studies and English in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In November of 2012 I defended my thesis on education policy studies at the Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiries in Education, University of British Columbia.

less

Noel B. Salazar

KU Leuven

University of Delaware

George K. # Zarifis

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

B. Harun Küçük

University of Pennsylvania

University of British Columbia

Benjamin Isakhan

Deakin University

University of Chichester

Kansas State University

Fordham University

University of Cologne

InterestsView All (15)

Uploads

Papers by Tobey Steeves

British Columbia Obstructs the Shock Doctrine: Struggle, Solidarity, and Popular Resistance

The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished ... more The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished the 2013/2014 school year locked out and on strike. Naomi Klein's notion of shock doctrines provides a lens for understanding this struggle over public services. In this paper I analyze the contexts that drove BC's teachers to reject shock therapy and highlight the tactics used to cultivate shock resistance in BC. This clash of private and public values can be extended and adapted to other contexts to cultivate broad popular support for public education.

(De/Re)-constructing teachers and their work : a discourse analysis of British Columbia's 21st-century policy agenda

This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘goo... more This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘good teaching’ and ‘good teachers’ were developed and used within the policy-document A Vision for 21st Century Education. Released in 2010 by British Columbia’s Premier’s Technology Council, A Vision for 21st Century Education is a localized policy that attempts to re-imagine key features of teachers and their work in ways that are consistent with the goals of the larger 21st-century policy agenda currently circulating the world. Through my use of content and discourse analysis, I show how A Vision for 21st Century Education promotes a vision of schooling that is largely a neoliberal and managerialist enterprise that relegates teachers and teaching to subordinate roles within processes of policy development and policy implementation. The study identifies two prominent discourses within A Vision for 21st Century Education: ‘learnification’ translates and reduces public education to terms of...

Leadership debate 2011 : [tentatively] positioning the NDP's education agenda

Steeves! 1 1 Although described as a ʻdebateʼ, the event in Surrey was less a debate than a campa... more Steeves! 1 1 Although described as a ʻdebateʼ, the event in Surrey was less a debate than a campaign stoop: candidates did not directly debate or critique each other. Instead, the ʻdebateʼ was moreso aimed at contesting the leadership of the Liberal party. Sadly, neither the Liberals nor any of BCʼs other parties were invited to the NDPʼs ʻdebateʼ on education. 2 Each debate focused on a different theme:

Contesting BC's vision of '21st-century education' : a critical discourse analysis

In recent years the Premier's Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of '21st-century educa... more In recent years the Premier's Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of '21st-century education' to frame discussions of educational policy and reform in British Columbia (Allen, 2010; Premier's Technology Council, 2010). Notable for its emphasis on 'creativity' and '21stcentury skills', '21st-century education' is also representative of neoliberal social agendas driven by economic efficiency. Under the guidance of some of the world's largest transnational corporations, politicians in the UK, Australia, USA, and Canada have referenced '21st-century education' as an "essential" step in maintaining personal and national economic advantage (see, for e.g., P21 & AACTE, 2010; P21, 2008). Nevertheless, researchers writing for the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) have challenged the appropriateness of '21st-century education' for BC's youth, and have called for a more systematic interrogation of the contours, coherence, and value of the '21st-century' policy initiative (Naylor, 2011). Acceding to this warrant, I took the Technology Council's (2010) "special report" on '21st-century education' as the embodiment of a set of desires-and a situationally relevant site of analysis. Drawing on Barker & Galasinski's (2001) approach to critical discourse analysis, I attempted to identify and problematize instances of agency, desire, and validity in the Technology Council's vision for '21st-century education'. To constrain the horizons of my analysis I scrutinized the 'executive summary' of the Technology Council's (2010) "special report" on '21st-century education' while asking: (i) How is agency reified and which actors are privileged? (ii) How is modality used to articulate (un)certainty? (iii) Is the construal of students' subjectivities valid? In sharing this ongoing inquiry, I hope to highlight the need for sustained critical engagement with educational policies in BC. Steeves!

Critical Education Public Education in British Columbia The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted 'crisis'. Teachers and ... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted 'crisis'. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students' unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein's analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling "orchestrated raids on the public sphere" to undermine public education in the province.

Bridges to Difference & Maps of Becoming: An Experiment with Teachers in Nomadic Spaces for Education in British Columbia

In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I o... more In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outline the significance of the work of Gilles Deleuze to education policy debates in British Columbia. After describing Roy's Deleuzian approach to curricular practice, I situate Roy's approach within a field of Deleuze-o-Guattarian-inspired education studies. In summary, I argue that Roy's text can serve as a vehicle for re-conceptualizing educational encounters, the lives of teachers, and curricular policy.

Public Education in British Columbia: The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Critical Education, Sep 1, 2014

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the prov... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students’ unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein’s analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling “orchestrated raids on the public sphere” to undermine public education in the province.

Bridges to Difference & Maps of Becoming: An Experiment with Teachers in Nomadic Spaces for Education in British Columbia

Workplace a Journal For Academic Labor, Jun 8, 2012

In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I ... more In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outline the significance of the work of Gilles Deleuze to education policy debates in British Columbia. After describing Roy's Deleuzian approach to curricular practice, I situate Roy's approach within a field of Deleuze-o-Guattarian-inspired education studies. In summary, I argue that Roy's text can serve as a vehicle for re-conceptualizing educational encounters, the lives of teachers, and curricular policy.

Public Education in British Columbia: The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Critical Education, Sep 1, 2014

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the prov... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students’ unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein’s analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling “orchestrated raids on the public sphere” to undermine public education in the province.

Teach For Canada: Silver bullet or crypto-colonialism?

An updated analysis of Teach For Canada's aims to "make education in Canada more equal".

Teach For Canada: A recipe for making education in Canada more (un)equal?

British Columbia obstructs the shock doctrine: Struggle, solidarity, and popular resistance

The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished ... more The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished the 2013/2014 school year locked out and on strike. Naomi Klein’s notion of shock doctrines provides a lens for understanding this struggle over public services. In this paper I analyze the contexts that drove BC's teachers to reject shock therapy and highlight the tactics used to cultivate shock resistance in BC. This clash of private and public values can be extended and adapted to other contexts to cultivate broad popular support for public education.

Public Education in British Columbia: The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Critical Education, Sep 1, 2014

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the prov... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students’ unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein’s analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling “orchestrated raids on the public sphere” to undermine public education in the province.

British Columbia’s neoliberal folly: Dissecting the 21st century agenda

Educational reform in British Columbia has recently been energized by the '21st Century Skills' n... more Educational reform in British Columbia has recently been energized by the '21st Century Skills' narrative. By adopting the rhetoric of student-centered pedagogies and economic competitiveness, '21st Century Education' is often construed as a roadmap for progressive and bold reforms. In this essay I consider whose interests '21st Century Skills' serve and suggest '21st Century Skills' may function as a vehicle for neoliberal social engineering.

(De/Re)-Constructing teachers and their work: A discourse analysis of British Columbia's 21st-century policy agenda

This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘goo... more This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘good teaching’ and ‘good teachers’ were developed and used within the policy-document A Vision for 21st Century Education. Released in 2010 by British Columbia’s Premier’s Technology Council, A Vision for 21st Century Education is a localized policy that attempts to re-imagine key features of teachers and their work in ways that are consistent with the goals of the larger 21st-century policy agenda currently circulating the world. Through my use of content and discourse analysis, I show how A Vision for 21st Century Education promotes a vision of schooling that is largely a neoliberal and managerialist enterprise that relegates teachers and teaching to subordinate roles within processes of policy development and policy implementation. The study identifies two prominent discourses within A Vision for 21st Century Education: ‘learnification’ translates and reduces public education to terms of ‘learners’ and ‘learning,’ and ‘accountingization’ re-imagines teachers’ work as ‘that which can be counted.’ I take care to show how these discourses (i) are developed within the text through genre and style, modalization and passivation; and (ii) subordinate teachers beneath the values of policy makers. I argue that this relative devaluation of teachers and their work provides a basis for increased school conflicts, contributes to elevated stress among teachers, and may encourage teacher ‘burnout.’ As a point of contrast, I sketch an alternative vision of the role of teachers’ work that is grounded in democratic values and practices.

Contesting BC's vision of '21st-century education' : A critical discourse analysis

In recent years the Premier’s Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of ‘21st-century educa... more In recent years the Premier’s Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of ‘21st-century education’ to frame discussions of educational policy and reform in British Columbia. BC’s Teacher’s Federation, in contrast, has challenged the appropriateness of ‘21st-century education’, and has called for a more systematic interrogation of the contours, coherence, and value of the ‘21st-century’ policy narrative. Acceding to this warrant, this paper builds upon my ongoing inquiry into ‘21st-century education’. Taking the Technology Council’s “special report” on ‘21st-century education’ as a site of analysis, this paper draws on the tools of critical discourse analysis to identify and problematize instances of agency, modality, and validity in the Technology Council’s vision for ‘21st-century education’. In sharing this inquiry I hope to highlight the need for sustained critical engagement with educational policies in BC.

Curriculum as a vehicle for production or consumption?

In this essay I draw on Jean Anyon’s suggestion that “school curriculum has contributed to the fo... more In this essay I draw on Jean Anyon’s suggestion that “school curriculum has contributed to the formations of attitudes that make it easier for powerful groups … to manage and control society." Specifically, I draw on the 'Maple Spring' to contextualize the distinction between transcendental and immanent views of curricular practice.

Schools as sorting machines and the imperative of reform

Michael Apple’s (2004) Ideology and Curriculum has been cited as “one of the most important books... more Michael Apple’s (2004) Ideology and Curriculum has been cited as “one of the most important books in the history of Western education” (p. vii). Among the many provocative theses in Apple’s book is the claim that schools normalize dividing practices which naturalize and reproduce a stratified field of social relations. That is to say, in schools students are classified, diagnosed, treated, and sorted in accordance with externally-imposed classificatory grids of deviance, or – more aptly, difference. Apple also notes that many reforms which aim to ‘ameliorate’ inequities in schools – guided by the best of intentions – more often than not “ultimately harm rather than help, [and] cloud over basic issues and value conflicts rather than contributing to our ability to face them honestly” (p. 119). With Apple’s stern warning in mind, I link and extend his argument to the field of education policy in BC with a brief discussion on funding for special education programs and a snapshot of demographic data from BC’s classrooms. I conclude by sketching an alternative mode of educational encounter guided by a foundation in ethics.

Curricular praxis: Representation as ʻbuggeryʼ and legitimation for the public good

In launching a dialogue with Apple’s (2004) Ideology and curriculum, I diagram and problematize r... more

Bridges to Difference & Maps of Becoming: An Experiment with Teachers in Nomadic Spaces for Education in British Columbia

In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outli... more In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outline the significance of the work of Gilles Deleuze to education policy debates in British Columbia. After describing Roy's Deleuzian approach to curricular practice, I situate Roy's approach within a field of Deleuze-o-Guattarian-inspired education studies. In summary, I argue that Roy's text can serve as a vehicle for re-conceptualizing educational encounters, the lives of teachers, and curricular policy.

British Columbia Obstructs the Shock Doctrine: Struggle, Solidarity, and Popular Resistance

The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished ... more The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished the 2013/2014 school year locked out and on strike. Naomi Klein's notion of shock doctrines provides a lens for understanding this struggle over public services. In this paper I analyze the contexts that drove BC's teachers to reject shock therapy and highlight the tactics used to cultivate shock resistance in BC. This clash of private and public values can be extended and adapted to other contexts to cultivate broad popular support for public education.

(De/Re)-constructing teachers and their work : a discourse analysis of British Columbia's 21st-century policy agenda

This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘goo... more This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘good teaching’ and ‘good teachers’ were developed and used within the policy-document A Vision for 21st Century Education. Released in 2010 by British Columbia’s Premier’s Technology Council, A Vision for 21st Century Education is a localized policy that attempts to re-imagine key features of teachers and their work in ways that are consistent with the goals of the larger 21st-century policy agenda currently circulating the world. Through my use of content and discourse analysis, I show how A Vision for 21st Century Education promotes a vision of schooling that is largely a neoliberal and managerialist enterprise that relegates teachers and teaching to subordinate roles within processes of policy development and policy implementation. The study identifies two prominent discourses within A Vision for 21st Century Education: ‘learnification’ translates and reduces public education to terms of...

Leadership debate 2011 : [tentatively] positioning the NDP's education agenda

Steeves! 1 1 Although described as a ʻdebateʼ, the event in Surrey was less a debate than a campa... more Steeves! 1 1 Although described as a ʻdebateʼ, the event in Surrey was less a debate than a campaign stoop: candidates did not directly debate or critique each other. Instead, the ʻdebateʼ was moreso aimed at contesting the leadership of the Liberal party. Sadly, neither the Liberals nor any of BCʼs other parties were invited to the NDPʼs ʻdebateʼ on education. 2 Each debate focused on a different theme:

Contesting BC's vision of '21st-century education' : a critical discourse analysis

In recent years the Premier's Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of '21st-century educa... more In recent years the Premier's Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of '21st-century education' to frame discussions of educational policy and reform in British Columbia (Allen, 2010; Premier's Technology Council, 2010). Notable for its emphasis on 'creativity' and '21stcentury skills', '21st-century education' is also representative of neoliberal social agendas driven by economic efficiency. Under the guidance of some of the world's largest transnational corporations, politicians in the UK, Australia, USA, and Canada have referenced '21st-century education' as an "essential" step in maintaining personal and national economic advantage (see, for e.g., P21 & AACTE, 2010; P21, 2008). Nevertheless, researchers writing for the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) have challenged the appropriateness of '21st-century education' for BC's youth, and have called for a more systematic interrogation of the contours, coherence, and value of the '21st-century' policy initiative (Naylor, 2011). Acceding to this warrant, I took the Technology Council's (2010) "special report" on '21st-century education' as the embodiment of a set of desires-and a situationally relevant site of analysis. Drawing on Barker & Galasinski's (2001) approach to critical discourse analysis, I attempted to identify and problematize instances of agency, desire, and validity in the Technology Council's vision for '21st-century education'. To constrain the horizons of my analysis I scrutinized the 'executive summary' of the Technology Council's (2010) "special report" on '21st-century education' while asking: (i) How is agency reified and which actors are privileged? (ii) How is modality used to articulate (un)certainty? (iii) Is the construal of students' subjectivities valid? In sharing this ongoing inquiry, I hope to highlight the need for sustained critical engagement with educational policies in BC. Steeves!

Critical Education Public Education in British Columbia The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted 'crisis'. Teachers and ... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted 'crisis'. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students' unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein's analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling "orchestrated raids on the public sphere" to undermine public education in the province.

Bridges to Difference & Maps of Becoming: An Experiment with Teachers in Nomadic Spaces for Education in British Columbia

In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I o... more In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outline the significance of the work of Gilles Deleuze to education policy debates in British Columbia. After describing Roy's Deleuzian approach to curricular practice, I situate Roy's approach within a field of Deleuze-o-Guattarian-inspired education studies. In summary, I argue that Roy's text can serve as a vehicle for re-conceptualizing educational encounters, the lives of teachers, and curricular policy.

Public Education in British Columbia: The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Critical Education, Sep 1, 2014

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the prov... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students’ unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein’s analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling “orchestrated raids on the public sphere” to undermine public education in the province.

Bridges to Difference & Maps of Becoming: An Experiment with Teachers in Nomadic Spaces for Education in British Columbia

Workplace a Journal For Academic Labor, Jun 8, 2012

In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I ... more In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outline the significance of the work of Gilles Deleuze to education policy debates in British Columbia. After describing Roy's Deleuzian approach to curricular practice, I situate Roy's approach within a field of Deleuze-o-Guattarian-inspired education studies. In summary, I argue that Roy's text can serve as a vehicle for re-conceptualizing educational encounters, the lives of teachers, and curricular policy.

Public Education in British Columbia: The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Critical Education, Sep 1, 2014

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the prov... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students’ unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein’s analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling “orchestrated raids on the public sphere” to undermine public education in the province.

Teach For Canada: Silver bullet or crypto-colonialism?

An updated analysis of Teach For Canada's aims to "make education in Canada more equal".

Teach For Canada: A recipe for making education in Canada more (un)equal?

British Columbia obstructs the shock doctrine: Struggle, solidarity, and popular resistance

The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished ... more The 2014/2015 school year had a rocky start in British Columbia, Canada, where teachers finished the 2013/2014 school year locked out and on strike. Naomi Klein’s notion of shock doctrines provides a lens for understanding this struggle over public services. In this paper I analyze the contexts that drove BC's teachers to reject shock therapy and highlight the tactics used to cultivate shock resistance in BC. This clash of private and public values can be extended and adapted to other contexts to cultivate broad popular support for public education.

Public Education in British Columbia: The Rise of the Shock Doctrine or Kindling for a Shock-Proof Otherwise?

Critical Education, Sep 1, 2014

Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the prov... more Public education in British Columbia is experiencing a protracted ‘crisis’. Teachers and the provincial government appear to be locked into a game of brinkmanship, and students’ unmet needs are at risk of being obscured by the fray. By extending Naomi Klein’s analysis of shock doctrines, I show how this impasse is not accidental and, in fact, acts as a means of enabling “orchestrated raids on the public sphere” to undermine public education in the province.

British Columbia’s neoliberal folly: Dissecting the 21st century agenda

Educational reform in British Columbia has recently been energized by the '21st Century Skills' n... more Educational reform in British Columbia has recently been energized by the '21st Century Skills' narrative. By adopting the rhetoric of student-centered pedagogies and economic competitiveness, '21st Century Education' is often construed as a roadmap for progressive and bold reforms. In this essay I consider whose interests '21st Century Skills' serve and suggest '21st Century Skills' may function as a vehicle for neoliberal social engineering.

(De/Re)-Constructing teachers and their work: A discourse analysis of British Columbia's 21st-century policy agenda

This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘goo... more This study made use of content and discourse analysis to critically examine how the ideas of ‘good teaching’ and ‘good teachers’ were developed and used within the policy-document A Vision for 21st Century Education. Released in 2010 by British Columbia’s Premier’s Technology Council, A Vision for 21st Century Education is a localized policy that attempts to re-imagine key features of teachers and their work in ways that are consistent with the goals of the larger 21st-century policy agenda currently circulating the world. Through my use of content and discourse analysis, I show how A Vision for 21st Century Education promotes a vision of schooling that is largely a neoliberal and managerialist enterprise that relegates teachers and teaching to subordinate roles within processes of policy development and policy implementation. The study identifies two prominent discourses within A Vision for 21st Century Education: ‘learnification’ translates and reduces public education to terms of ‘learners’ and ‘learning,’ and ‘accountingization’ re-imagines teachers’ work as ‘that which can be counted.’ I take care to show how these discourses (i) are developed within the text through genre and style, modalization and passivation; and (ii) subordinate teachers beneath the values of policy makers. I argue that this relative devaluation of teachers and their work provides a basis for increased school conflicts, contributes to elevated stress among teachers, and may encourage teacher ‘burnout.’ As a point of contrast, I sketch an alternative vision of the role of teachers’ work that is grounded in democratic values and practices.

Contesting BC's vision of '21st-century education' : A critical discourse analysis

In recent years the Premier’s Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of ‘21st-century educa... more In recent years the Premier’s Technology Council has drawn on the rhetoric of ‘21st-century education’ to frame discussions of educational policy and reform in British Columbia. BC’s Teacher’s Federation, in contrast, has challenged the appropriateness of ‘21st-century education’, and has called for a more systematic interrogation of the contours, coherence, and value of the ‘21st-century’ policy narrative. Acceding to this warrant, this paper builds upon my ongoing inquiry into ‘21st-century education’. Taking the Technology Council’s “special report” on ‘21st-century education’ as a site of analysis, this paper draws on the tools of critical discourse analysis to identify and problematize instances of agency, modality, and validity in the Technology Council’s vision for ‘21st-century education’. In sharing this inquiry I hope to highlight the need for sustained critical engagement with educational policies in BC.

Curriculum as a vehicle for production or consumption?

In this essay I draw on Jean Anyon’s suggestion that “school curriculum has contributed to the fo... more In this essay I draw on Jean Anyon’s suggestion that “school curriculum has contributed to the formations of attitudes that make it easier for powerful groups … to manage and control society." Specifically, I draw on the 'Maple Spring' to contextualize the distinction between transcendental and immanent views of curricular practice.

Schools as sorting machines and the imperative of reform

Michael Apple’s (2004) Ideology and Curriculum has been cited as “one of the most important books... more Michael Apple’s (2004) Ideology and Curriculum has been cited as “one of the most important books in the history of Western education” (p. vii). Among the many provocative theses in Apple’s book is the claim that schools normalize dividing practices which naturalize and reproduce a stratified field of social relations. That is to say, in schools students are classified, diagnosed, treated, and sorted in accordance with externally-imposed classificatory grids of deviance, or – more aptly, difference. Apple also notes that many reforms which aim to ‘ameliorate’ inequities in schools – guided by the best of intentions – more often than not “ultimately harm rather than help, [and] cloud over basic issues and value conflicts rather than contributing to our ability to face them honestly” (p. 119). With Apple’s stern warning in mind, I link and extend his argument to the field of education policy in BC with a brief discussion on funding for special education programs and a snapshot of demographic data from BC’s classrooms. I conclude by sketching an alternative mode of educational encounter guided by a foundation in ethics.

Curricular praxis: Representation as ʻbuggeryʼ and legitimation for the public good

In launching a dialogue with Apple’s (2004) Ideology and curriculum, I diagram and problematize r... more

Bridges to Difference & Maps of Becoming: An Experiment with Teachers in Nomadic Spaces for Education in British Columbia

In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outli... more In this review of Kaustuv Roy's (2003) Teachers in Nomadic Spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum I outline the significance of the work of Gilles Deleuze to education policy debates in British Columbia. After describing Roy's Deleuzian approach to curricular practice, I situate Roy's approach within a field of Deleuze-o-Guattarian-inspired education studies. In summary, I argue that Roy's text can serve as a vehicle for re-conceptualizing educational encounters, the lives of teachers, and curricular policy.